20 November 2009

This time we have four pretty postcards sent to Miss Ethel Rudkin on the occasion of her birthday. This one is dated 9 Apr 1920 and is sent from her nephew Leonard, son of her brother Walter.

Ethel May Rudkin was born on or near the 10 Apr 1894 in Witham, Essex, the daughter of Henry Rudkin and Ann née Dawson. Henry was the son of William Rootking and Harriet née Newcombe. William was the son of Isaac Rootking and Sarah née Cook. Isaac was born in Little Coggeshall, Essex but by 1841 was living in Witham where the Rootking/Rudkin family lived for at least the next century.

The last three postcards were all posted in 1913 & addressed to ‘The Parsonage’ which is a bit of a mystery as they were living at Power’s Hall End in 1911 which is the address on the 1920 postcard. Henry’s occupation was a Maltster so their home must have been an old parsonage.

Apart from the three children living at home there were three other children.

Walter Charles 1879 who had married Edith Hicks in 1902, their son was Leonard born 1904. Ernest George 1881 who married Annie Pawsey in 1910. Eva Jane 1892, who was away from home working as a servant in Sussex, she married Bertie May in 1929.

Apparently there are a lot of other postcards from Ethel’s collection which were all bought at an auction in NZ many years ago, I purchased these four from TradeMe. I wasn’t able to find a marriage for Ethel although quite a few of the cards were valentines from an affectionate Albert. I wonder if she married him, perhaps they migrated to NZ, there must be a reason all the postcards turned up here. I had to laugh at one of her cards posted in Feb 1908, she would have been 15, “meet me Friday night outside just round the corner on the left, from one who loves you, Jim”. Did she make the rendezvous I wonder or did her parents lock her up when they saw the card? Silly Jim, didn’t he think her parents might see it, especially seeing he addressed it to Ethel c/o her mother!

If anyone knows anything about or is connected to the Rudkin family please do contact me, I would love to pass these postcards onto a family member. Contact by email is preferable but if you are going to leave a comment please don’t forget to include your email address.

All the information I’ve found on this family may also be seen on the next update at WorldConnect here.